ACADÉMIEACADÉMI ACADÉMACADÉACADACAACA

LIST OF PARTICIPANTSBIOGRAPHIESOPERA DE-CI DE-LÀSEMINARJUNE 15 — 16, 2020

3

OPERA DE-CI DE-LÀ SEMINARThe Académie du Festival d’Aix has adapted and developed new online training programs in order to continue to carry out its mission of training and accompanying young musicians in their professional development. Country borders currently pose a challenge to an artist’s mobility and so it becomes important to create new work spaces and meeting places which allow for the preservation of the vital links and intercultural dialogue at the heart of these programs.The training programs were created through a process of reflection and ongoing exchange with the artists and pedagogical experts who were initially involved in training sessions that were scheduled to take place in Aix during the 2020 edition of the Festival d’Aix. Through these newly adapted programs, the Académie du Festival d’Aix continues to defend its values which include artistic excellence, innovation, the expression of cultural diversity, and activities which promote social inclusion.

The Opera-de-ci de-là residency which was initially scheduled to take place from the 25th to the 27th March and then from the 15th to the 20th June has been deferred to 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic. Nevertheless, on the 15th and 16th June, the selected artists have been invited to participate remotely in an online seminar where they will be able to reflect on the role of art in our society and on creating during times of crisis. The two day seminar will take place entirely online and will be led by the residency’s tutor Anthony Heidweiller with the participation of Frédérique Aït-Touati, theatre director and historian specialized in 17th century literature and modern science.

This seminar is supported by Ammodo and Total Foundation.

This Opera de-ci de-là residency is an residency.enoa (European Network of Opera Academies), which was founded by the Festival d’Aix and its Académie, was born in 2009 from the wish of a number of operatic institutions to work more closely together to support the professional integration of the young artists and to support the development of their artistic ambitions.With the backing of Creative Europe programme, enoa has been working to provide young artists with a first-rate training pathway using contemporary, multidisciplinary approach to opera; to give them experience of performing and of the creative process; and to support the development and dissemination of new operatic works which contribute to diversifying audiences.Thirteen members, over a thousand young artists and some three hundred professionals make up the enoa community.

* Participant supported by institutions members of enoa network:Theaterakademie August Everding – Munich

MENTOR

ANTHONY HEIDWEILLER SINGER AND ARTISTIC ASSOCIATED DIRECTOR OF THE OPERA FORWARD FESTIVAL OF AMSTERDAM

PARTICIPANTS

EVAN LAWSON — COMPOSERGEORDIE BROOKMAN — STAGE DIRECTORALBERTO MARTÍNEZ — BARITONEFIONA MCGOWN — MEZZO-SOPRANOSIMONA CASTRIA — SAXOPHONE

AMY CRANKSHAW — COMPOSERCARMEN C. KRUSE — STAGE DIRECTORCHRISTIAN ANDREAS — BARITONEMIMI DOULTON — SOPRANOFRANCISCO SALES — TROMBONE

BENJAMIEN LYCKE — COMPOSERJOSIE DAXTER — STAGE DIRECTORLAURE POISSONNIER — SOPRANOHALIDOU NOMBRE — BARITONE

GOLFAM KHAYAM — COMPOSERPAULINA PLATZER * — STAGE DIRECTORANNA SCHORS — MEZZO-SOPRANOEIRA SJAASTAD HUSE — MEZZO-SOPRANOCOLIN HELLER — NICKELHARPA

Follow on

www.enoa-community.com

@enoacommunity

European network of opera academies - enoa

enoa_community

european-network-of-opera-academies

54

Anthony Heidweiller is a baritone, operamaker, creator, inspirer and promoter of innovative opera concepts. Concepts such as participation and community arts are central to much of his work. In 2001, he set up a Youth Opera Festival (YO! Opera) to introduce opera to young people. In 2006, his Yo! Opera community arts project, Opera on the Bus, won an award for “the most innovative event”. In 2008, Yo! Opera was awarded the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds prize for art education. In 2011, he received the Culture Award of the Municipality of Utrecht.  Since 2012, he has been artistic director of the Operamakers Foundation. In 2018, the music education project Vocal Statements of Operamakers has been nominated. Besides his own company Operamakers, he is affiliated with institutions such as the Dutch National Opera, Artistic Associate Director Opera Forward Festival (nominated in 2018 as the most important opera festival in the world), Artist in Residence Theaterschool and Conservatorium Amsterdam, Festival of Flanders Brussels and in Germany, RUHR 2010. In March 2019, he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

MENTORANTHONY HEIDWEILLERSINGER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR THE NETHERLANDS

Evan J. Lawson (born 1989) is one of Australia’s leading queer artists, working at the forefront of contemporary culture as composer, curator and conductor, chiefly as artistic director of Forest Collective. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He has studied with Benjamin Northey, Richard Gill, Johanna Selleck, David Aronson (at the Wiener Staatsoper) and Matthias Pintscher (at Grafenegg Festival). He was composer-in-residence at Billilla Mansion in 2015 and has completed developing artist programs with the Malthouse Theatre, Grafenegg Festival and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.He has performed across Australia, Asia, Europe and the USA, working with a variety of companies, such as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Moravska Filharmonie, Forest Collective, ANAM Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Geelong Symphony Orchestra, Density 512, Gertrude Opera, Performance Space, Ranters Theatre, Prismatx Ensemble, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra, Australian Children’s Choir and Syzygy Ensemble, for Melbourne International Arts Festival, Metropolis New Music Festival, Grafenegg Festival (Austria), Dublin Theatre Festival, Sydney’s Mardi Gras, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Melbourne Recital Centre, Malthouse Theatre, CarriageWorks, Jinji Lake Concert hall (China), Midsumma Festival, the Universities of Melbourne, Paris, Texas and Oregon as well as SoundSCAPE New Music Festival (Italy). As opera conductor, he has performed Benjamin Britten’s Curlew River (Gertrude Opera, Linda Thompson dir.), Bizet’s Carmen (In Good Company, Greg Eldridge, dir.), Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea (Gertrude Opera, Yarra Valley Opera Festival, Gale Edwards AM dir.), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Gertrude Opera, Linda Thompson dir.) and his own two operas Calypso (Forest Collective) and Orpheus (Forest Collective, Density 512 & Prismatx Ensemble). His practice goes beyond the standard concert hall to encompass various collaborative works including Nico with Cabaret sensation Danielle Asciak, the premiere of his dance-opera Orpheus with choreographer Ashley Dougan, fluttering hearts // thinking machines by pop music doyen Addison, Australian premiere of Holcombe Waller’s Requiem Mass: LGBT (Mardi Gras, Performance Space and Carriageworks) and Come Away with Me to the End of the World (by Adriano and Raymondo Cortese for Ranters Theatre, Malthouse Theatre and Dublin Theatre Festival).

www.evanjlawson.com

PARTICIPANTEVAN LAWSONCOMPOSERAUSTRALIA

6 7

Geordie Brookman is one of Australia’s leading theatre and music theatre directors. From 2012 to 2019, he was the Artistic Director and Co-CEO of State Theatre Company South Australia during which time he more than tripled the Company’s activity and instigated its first three ever international tours. Since graduating from Flinders University Drama Centre, he has directed work around Australia, the United Kingdom and Asia. One of his latest productions for Frantic Assembly and the Lyric Hammersmith, Things I Know to Be True, recently enjoyed a return four-month, sell-out season in the United Kingdom. His directing credits also include Machu Picchu, Kryptonite and Spring Awakening: The Musical (Sydney Theatre Company), Animal Farm, The Gods of Strangers, Sense and Sensibility, In The Club, Vale, Macbeth, A Doll’s House, Betrayal, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Footfalls, The Importance of Being Earnest, Little Bird, The Seagull, Maggie Stone, Hedda Gabler, The Kreutzer Sonata, Speaking In Tongues, romeo&juliet, Ghosts, Attempts on Her Life, The Dumb Waiter, Ruby Moon and Hot Fudge (State Theatre Company South Australia), Toy Symphony (Queensland Theatre Company), Knives In Hens (Malthouse Theatre), Metro Street (Arts Asia Pacific, Power Arts, Daegu International Musicals Festival), Baghdad Wedding, Tender and Disco Pigs (Belvoir), The City (nowyesnow), Marathon, Morph and The Return (Fresh Track), Tiny Dynamite (Griffin), Macbeth and The Laramie Project (Adelaide College of the Arts). His productions have won and received nominations for Helpmann, Greenroom, Sydney Critics Circle, Adelaide Critics Circle and Curtain Call awards and appeared in festivals including MONA FOMA, Midsumma, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the Adelaide International Festival of the Arts. He has also worked as a producer, dramaturge, teacher, event director and curator for organizations including the Adelaide Festival, the National Play Festival, University of Wollongong, Australian Theatre for Young People, Australian Fashion Week and Queensland Theatre Company.

PARTICIPANTGEORDIE BROOKMANSTAGE DIRECTORAUSTRALIA

Spanish baritone Alberto Martínez studied flute and singing at the Conservatory of Salamanca, received a Master in opera performance at the Conservatory of Valencia and a Postgraduate diploma at the International Opera Academy in Ghent. He studied with David Menéndez, Deborah Polaski, Ofelia Sala, Javier San Miguel, Dietrich Henschel and Manuel Burgueras, among others.He has performed the roles of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Nardo in La finta giardiniera (Mozart), Belcore in L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti), Schaunard in La Bohème (Puccini), L’Horloge and Le Chat in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Ravel), Le Dancaïre in Carmen (Bizet), The Drunken Poet and The Winter in The Fairy Queen (Purcell), Uberto in La serva padrona (Pergolesi), Brundibár in Brundibár (Kràsa), Brabantische Edle in Lohengrin (Wagner), Golaud in Petit Pelléas (based on Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy) and Beck in A Matter of Triumph and Void (based on Triumph of Spirit over Matter and Void by W. Henderickx). He also performed zarzuela roles like Ricardo Martín in El barbero de Sevilla (Giménez and Nieto), Lamparilla in El barberillo de Lavapiés (Barbieri) and Joaquín in La del Manojo de Rosas (Sorozabal). He sang several oratorio masterpieces including Messiah (Handel), Requiem (Fauré), Requiem (Mozart), Lazarus (Schubert), Ein deutsches Requiem (Brahms) and Bach cantatas within the project “Bach Studium”, conducted by Alfonso Sebastián. He worked with conductors Korneel Bernolet (Apotheosis), Philip Raté (Spectra ensemble), Alejo Pérez (Opera Vlaanderen), Otto Tausk (Belgian National Orchestra), Eduardo López Banzo (Al ayre español), Javier Castro (Ars Nova) and Jordi Francés, and directors David Alden, Darren Ross, Jorinde Keesmaat, Gema Beltran, Alberto Barba, Lucija Brnic, Wolfgang Gruber and Guy Joosten. He performed in Teatro Liceo in Salamanca, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Palau de la Música and Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Miry Concertzaal, Minardschowburg and Muziekcentrum De Bijloke in Ghent, BOZAR and Téâtre royal des galeries in Brussels, Concertgebouw in Brugge and the Kunsthuis Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent.

www.alberto-martinez.com

PARTICIPANTALBERTO MARTÍNEZBARITONESPAIN

8 9

Trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris as well as the Musikhochschule in Leipzig, the mezzo-soprano Fiona McGown is a young rising figure of the French lyric scene. Recently, she could be heard at the Louvre Auditorium in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire as well as at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame in Paris in Vivaldi’s Magnificat. Her preferred roles thus far include Cherubino in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro (Escales Lyriques Festival), Second Witch and Second Woman in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Théâtre de l’Athénée and Opéra Royal de Versailles), Juno in Haendel’s Semele (CNSMDP), Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel (Leipziger Symphony Orchestra), Fidalma in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto (Philharmonie de Paris), Zweiter Zofen in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Rennes), Tetide and Vittoria in Sacrati’s Finta pazza (Opéra de Dijon, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Victoria Hall de Genève). She has given numerous lied and melody recitals with her partners Célia Oneto Bensaid, Adam Laloum and Anne Le Bozec (Petit Palais, Les Invalides, Festival Messiaen, Les Musicales du Lubéron, France Musique). In addition, she is creator and dedicatee of the works of composers of her generation such as Camille Pépin (Chamber Music, Dancing Poems) Fabien Touchard (Le Silence tombe en moi comme un fruit) and Othman Louati (La Frontière, Now Close the Windows, L’Été de nuit). During her rich musical journey, she has been honoured to receive training and instruction from Bernarda Fink, Christoph Prégardien, Véronique Gens, Karine Deshayes, Christophe Rousset, Hervé Niquet. She was part of Castellucci’s Mozart Requiem last season in the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

www.fionamcgown.com

Simona Castria approached music at very early age, when she used to play piano with her sister. She then began playing the saxophone at the Conservatory of Matera and continues at the “G. Verdi” of Milan under the guidance of Daniele Comoglio. During her studies in Milan, she was awarded an Erasmus scholarship to study for a semester in the Royal Conservatory of Brussel. She moved then to France where she studied with J.D. Michat before getting accepted in the class of Claude Delangle at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris for a Master in saxophone. She is now attending a post Master program in New Music under the guidance of Hae-Sun Kang. In the last few years, she won several prizes in national and international competition as soloist or in chamber music configuration (saxophone quartets and duo with piano): Aexigentia competition, Ferrero prize, Cantarone prize and Rosa Ponselle competition among others.She performs as soloist and in several other musical settings such as orchestras (I Pomeriggi Musicali orchestra), ensembles (Intercontemporain) and music chamber group (L’Impolie, La Frange). She often collaborates in theater productions at the Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse of Lyon directed by Jean Lacornerie and in Casa Cava theater in Matera with Oltremare company. Interested to contemporary music, she unceasingly researches new works for saxophone and collaborates with nowadays composers (Stefano Gervasoni, Bruno Mantovani, Ivan Fedele, Alexandros Markeas, among others). She has been part of several important concerts and festivals (International Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, Bois d’Hiver in Lyon, Courants d’airs in Bruxelles, Full Sax Day in Lima) where she shared the stage with internationally acclaimed artists. She is also interested in didactical activities. She collaborates with music schools and with international campus for young players.

PARTICIPANTFIONA MCGOWNMEZZO-SOPRANOFRANCE

PARTICIPANTSIMONA CASTRIASAXOPHONEITALY

10 11

Amy Crankshaw (born 1991) is a South African composer based in London. In 2014, she was awarded the runner-up prize for the South African Music Rights Organisation’s prestigious Overseas Scholarship Competition for Composers. She is currently studying the MA in Opera Making & Writing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Julian Phillips. Previously, she studied her Masters in Composition (MMus) at South African College of Music (UCT) under Hendrik Hofmeyr. She graduated in 2015 in Distinction. Over the course of her studies, she received the Myra Chapman Undergraduate Scholarship, the Stephanie Garnett Memorial Prize for composition, the Meyer Levinson Prize for best original composition, the internationally acclaimed Priaulx Rainier Prize for best newly written compositions, as well as the EE Coutts Memorial Scholarship, the National Research Foundation Innovation Scholarship, and awards from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and the South African Music Rights Organisation. Her trio From the Valley of Desolation is featured in Volume 12 (second issue) of The Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, published in December 2015.She took up the place of composer-in-residence with the London City Orchestra in their 2016 summer term, which saw the premiere of her orchestral piece Paper Bird. For the 2017 Crouch End Festival, she curated and produced Immersion, her own musical event that combined a selection of her new chamber music with contemporary artwork and immersive audience experiences. She released her first album of music in 2019, namely Four Figures, a set of four pieces for piano. It is available for streaming and downloads on all major digital platforms. In July 2019, she participated in the Opera Creation Workshop at the Festival d’Aix, led by composer Pascal Dusapin. She is currently engaged with XOGA to compose the music for their new chamber opera, The Irish Astrologer. Her new opera, The Apothecary, with libretto by Clare Best, will be performed in July 2020 at the Guildhall School.

www.amycrankshaw.com

PARTICIPANTAMY CRANKSHAWCOMPOSERSOUTH AFRICA

PARTICIPANTCARMEN C. KRUSESTAGE DIRECTORAUSTRIA / GERMANY

Carmen C. Kruse is an Austrian German freelance opera director and new works collaborator. In her immersive and devised work, she focuses on creating places of encounters. She enjoys leaving conventional spaces and working with living composers to explore new topics, regions and their people. She studied music and media management with a focus on “opera and innovation” in Munich and San Diego. From 2016 to 2019, she assisted directors such as Jossi Wieler, David Alden, Vera Nemirova, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Alex Ollé at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Mainz and Staatsoper Stuttgart while continuing to develop and direct her own productions. After co-directing Händel’s Rodelinda and Mozart’s Così fan tutte, she directed Cavalli’s L’Egisto at the Halifax Summer Opera Festival 2017. Two devised pieces followed shortly: Ein Käfig voller Diven at Staatstheater Mainz and SDDS: Defiance with an amateur choir of sixty at Staatsoper Stuttgart. In 2018, she won the directing competition of the Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Deutsche Bank Stiftung and was invited to the 2018 Directors Lab at Lincoln Center Theater, where she directed scenes from A. Washburns I Have Loved Strangers. In 2019, she won the Cross Award in Verbania and directed the world premieres of Victoria Bonds Clara at the Easter Festival Baden-Baden and Thierry Tidrow’s micro-opera A Safe and Special Place at Ensemble Modern, Frankfurt. Together with composer Manuel Zwerger she currently develops a community-based new work at Teatro Maggiore, premiering in May 2020. She holds a Directing Scholarship from the Akademie Musiktheater Heute of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung (2017-2019).

www.cckruse.com

12 13

Christian Andreas holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the Royal College of Music London studying under Peter Savidge and a Bachelor of Music in Opera Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe under Stephan Kohlenberg. Since his professional debut in 2009 as Brundibár in the opera of the same name by Hans Krása at Heilbronn Theater in his native Germany, he has performed across Europe, Africa and the Americas, most notably singing in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Pontifex) at the Teatro del Lago in Chile (2013). He made his debuts at Casino Bern with the Berner Symphonieorchester and at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden as Taddeo in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri / Käpt’n Bone in 2015 and 2016 respectively. He joined the Royal College of Music International Opera School for performances of Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias (Presto) and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Harasta) in Britten Theatre London in 2017. The following year, he was invited to perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall London, the Orchestra di Padua e del Veneto in Italy and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, where he sang Il Conte di Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Recent engagements include performances of Verdi’s La Traviata (Baron Douphol) in Sicily and his United States operatic debut as Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Aquilon Music Festival Oregon. He has worked with coaches including Roger Vignoles, Hartmut Höll and Júlia Várady-Fischer-Dieskau and he has performed in masterclasses of Thomas Hampson, Christa Ludwig, Peter Schreier, Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Quasthoff, Barbara Frittoli, Ekaterina Semenchuk and Malcolm Martineau. He is also known for his work as a professional chorister and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (2012) and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2014) under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and for Sony in Händel’s Alexander’s Feast (2019) conducted by Lorenzo Ghirlanda.

www.christianandreas.com

PARTICIPANTCHRISTIAN ANDREASBARITONEGERMANY

Mimi Doulton is a soprano of British-Pakistani origin, with a particular interest in contemporary opera and song. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with distinction in 2018, where her studies were supported by the Guildhall School Trust, the Humphrey Richardson Taylor Trust, the Mario Lanza Educational Foundation, the Charity of Mary Barnes and three private donors. Previously, she was the Helen Hudson choral scholar at King’s College London, graduating with first-class honors in Music and Languages in 2015. She is a Live Music Now Artist, a Longborough Festival Emerging Artist, a Leeds Lieder Young Artist, an Opera Prelude Artist and a Park Lane Group Young Artist. In 2017–2018, she was the vocal scholar at Fondation Royaumont’s Academie Voix Nouvelles, won third place at the Music Club of London Competition, and was a finalist at the Dean & Chadlington Competition. In 2020, she is making role debuts as Jano in Jenůfa (Fulham Opera), Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia (Palace Opera), Ilia in Idomeneo (Haslemere Symphony Orchestra) and Pepik in The Cunning Little Vixen (Longborough Festival Opera). She will also premiere the role of Maya in Tom Smail’s completed Blue Electric at the Playground Theatre, Latimer Road. Recent engagements include cover Jerusha Cramer in Gerald Barry’s The Intelligence Park for Music Theatre Wales and the Royal Opera, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Merry Opera Company and creating the role of Mary in Wake with Birmingham Opera Company (directed by Graham Vick CBE). She has also created roles in Blue Electric and Schutzwall at Tête-à-tête, and developed new opera with the Royal Opera, Mahogany Opera Group and Snape Maltings. As a recitalist she has premiered works at venues including Wigmore Hall, Club Inégales and Fondation Royaumont. She was part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s ‘This is Rattle’ Festival in 2017–2018, and performed Copland’s 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson in the Barbican Hall as part of the orchestra’s Bernstein Centenary celebrations. Recital repertoire for the 2019–2020 season includes Messiaen’s Chants de terre et de ciel, Richard Strauss’ Ophelia Lieder, and Ravel and Debussy’s settings of Stephane Mallarmé.

www.mimidoulton.com

PARTICIPANTMIMI DOULTONSOPRANOUNITED KINGDOM / PAKISTAN

14 15

Born in Moura (Portugal) in 1998, Francisco Sales has always been in contact with music since he was a toddler due to his parents being amateur musicians. When he was 5 years-old, he entered the Conservatório Regional do Baixo Alentejo. He started learning the trombone at age 10 with Paulo Cordeiro. In 2013, he went to study with Reinaldo Guerreiro at Escola Profissional Metropolitana, in Lisbon. When he became 18 years-old, he entered in Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra, also in Lisbon, to continue his studies with the trombonist Reinaldo Guerreiro. After finishing his bachelor degree, majoring as Orchestral Musician (Curso de Instrumentista de Orquestra, variante de Trombone), he was invited by Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, where he was an academist, to play several times as first trombone.He has taken part in all the orchestras from Metropolitana, as in Orquestra de Sopros da Metropolitana, Orquestra Académica Metropolitana, Orquestra Sinfónica Metropolitana and Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisoba. He played also in Orquestra Nacional de Sopros, Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil and Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. He has been directed by many conductors such as Magnus Lindberg, Elgeny Buskov, Pedro Amaral, Kristjan Järvi, Sebastian Perlowski, Philip Sparke, Kazushi Ono, Quentin Hindley, Evandro Batté, Daniele Rustioni, Amaury de Closel, Jean-Marc Burfin, Pascal Verrot and some others. He has done some masterclasses with the trombonists André Conde, Vítor Faria, Francisco Couto, Thomas Leyendecker, Peter Moore and Paul Milner. For two consecutive years was invited to be part of the Mediterrenean Youth Orchestra, playing first trombone in 2019, working with the bass trombonist Paul Milner from the London Symphony Orchestra.

PARTICIPANTFRANCISCO SALESTROMBONEPORTUGAL

Benjamien Lycke (born 1989, Torhout) studied composition at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent (Ba & Ma) and the Royal College of Music London (Post-Grad). He wrote and produced as graduation piece in Gent the opera Acubens which was broadcast entirely on the Belgian national television (VRT) and was his first step with his collective SYNART to accomplish all kind of projects. He wrote with librettist and director Mien Bogaert several chamber operas with performances in London (Puck, Socsob), Hamburg (Cyclops) and Bruges (MONU - een multimediaal oorlogsrequiem). Besides soundtracks for movies (Memento Mori), games and advertisements (Chanel), he composes contemporary concert music for small (Kugoni Trio, Triotique) and big ensembles (Symfonie Orkest Vlaanderen). Choir, opera (Flandria, LOD) and experimental, multidisciplinary projects are his favourites. He programmed light and music for Tinkling I (detheatermaker) by Talitha De Decker (choreographer) and the soundtrack for SNAP XL (Fabuleus).

www.benjamien.be

PARTICIPANTBENJAMIEN LYCKECOMPOSERBELGIUM

16 17

Josie is based in London and works internationally in opera and theatre. She is revival director of Simon McBurney’s productions of A Dog’s Heart and Die Zauberflöte and assisted on the creation and revivals of The Rake’s Progress. She is directing the revivals of Romeo Castellucci’s Requiem, having assisted on its creation for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Josie has worked in theatre as an actor and movement director and has extensive experience in devised, physical theatre and puppetry. She has been creatively involved with Complicite since 2010 and also collaborates with physical theatre company Pappy Show. She has led courses, education projects and workshops for professionals, students and teachers across theatre, opera and puppetry. She is interested in weaving together her experience in theatre and opera to create and direct new work in collaboration with musicians, actors, dancers and other artists.

www.josiedaxter.com

PARTICIPANTJOSIE DAXTERSTAGE DIRECTORUNITED KINGDOM

Graduated from a Master of Vocal Performance at the Royal College of Music in London, the Conservatoire de Paris and the Sorbonne, the French soprano Laure Poissonnier integrates the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris (Atelier Lyrique) for seasons 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.During her first season, she was cover rehearsal of Aleksandra Kurzak for the role of Adina in Elisir d’amore by Donizetti, staging by Laurent Pelly. She participated in concerts and recitals at the Amphitheatre Bastille, where she played Le Garçon of the french creation Vol Retour by Johanna Lee, Euridice and Speranza in Orfeo by Monteverdi. She also performed as a soloist in the Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross by Haydn, with Marie-Christine Barrault and the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn conducted by Fayçal Karoui. During the Académie, she is Mrs Julian (Owen Wingrave) by Britten, Amour (Les Fêtes d’Hébé) by Rameau, Helena (Midsummer Night’s Dream) by Britten and the Paggio della Duchessa (Rigoletto) by Verdi in May-June 2017 on the main stage of Bastille, staged by Claus Guth. She has also taken part in Masterclasses with Philippe Jordan, Ildar Adbrazakov, Philippe Cassard, Jeff Cohen, Irène Kudela, Leontina Vaduva, Sally Burgess, John Tomlinson and the stage director Mariame Clément. For the “Jeune Public” in Opéra Bastille, she sang the creation Merveille by Pierre Rigal in Bastille, in France and Switzerland. That piece will be played at Les Hivernales in Avignon and at the Opéra de Rouen. She gives recitals with the Paris Opera Consort in China (musicians of the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris), the Festival 1001 Notes!, the Festival de la Chéronne, the Académie Ravel and the association Jeunes Talents. Recently, she gave recitals with the pianist François Moschetta. Her preparation of roles includes, among others, Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi by Puccini), Adina (L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti), Sophie (Werther by Massenet), Zerlina (Don Giovanni by Mozart), Eurydice (Orphée et Eurydice by Gluck) and Euridice (Orfeo by Monteverdi). She was Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi by Puccini with the Westminster Opera Company, staging by Stephen Taylor. She also appeared in 2018 in Genius Picasso, produced by National Geographic, and she sang extracts of La Bohème by Puccini.

www.laurepoissonniersoprano.net

PARTICIPANTLAURE POISSONNIERSOPRANOFRANCE

18 19

Halidou Nombre took his first steps on stage in the musical comedy world before joining a soul big band performing the great Motown classics. Interested in dance, he joined the contemporary dance company of the Sorbonne University under the direction of Corinne Virmont during his graduate studies. The chances of life lead him to the lyrical repertoire, which appeared to be a true revelation for him. He started his training in Saint-Ouen Conservatoire with Frédérique Epin, before perfecting his skills with Pierre Catala and Guillemette Laurens. Graduated with a Diploma of Musical Study (DEM) from the Paris regional conservatory, he joined in 2018 the concertiste graduation program belonging to the same conservatory in the class of Elsa Maurus and the opera academy of Monte. He participated in numerous masterclasses, including one with Ruggero Raimondi regarding Don Giovanni and the Count in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.As a stage true lover, he has distinguished himself in several roles since his debut in both opera and operette, including the repertoire of chamber music and lieder, which he was able to approach with Jean-Marc Pont Marchesi. He also tried his hand as stage director in a Dido and Aeneas production at the Hotel Gouthière in Paris. His repertoire includes Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Geronimo in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto (2015), Le Marquis de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmélites (2016), the Drunken poet and the Hymen in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Grabuge in Offenbach’s Geneviève de Brabant, René in Maurice Yvain’s Elle est à vous (2017) and Golaud in Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Mercutio in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette (2018). For the 2019-2020 season, he started a concert tour with the contemporary opera Jungle inspired by Kipling’s Jungle Book at the operas of Limoges, Bordeaux and Tours, as Escamillo (Bizet’s Carmen) at the Théâtre Royal de Mons in Belgium and as Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Charleroi. He was also invited to the Mozartiades in Brussels for a concert around the Da Ponte trilogy.

PARTICIPANTHALIDOU NOMBREBARITONEFRANCE

PARTICIPANTGOLFAM KHAYAMCOMPOSERIRAN

Golfam Khayam was born and grew up in Iran in a family of artists in Tehran. She holds a Master of Music from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati and a Master of “Interprétation specialisée” solist and composition at Geneva University in Switzerland. She has been winner of numerous prizes which includes International Rostrum of Composer in category of windows on the world.She has evolved into an international career as a composer and improviser. So far, she has signed and published with ECM Doberman-Yppan, Hermes records. Her music is featured in Elbphilharmonie, Metropolitan Museum, NPR “songs we love”, Danish Cultural Radio, BBC3 . Her recent commissions include Loadbang, Stephan Schmidt, Ivan Podyomov (principle Oboist of Concertgebouw), the Opéra de-ci-de-là residency in Aix-en-Provence.She is currently a lecturer in Tehran Art University.

www.golfamkhayam.com

20 21

Paulina Platzer (born 1996) lives and works in Munich. After finishing her bachelor degree in theater studies at Ludwig Maximilians University, she has continued her education since October 2019 with the master’s degree in dramaturgy at Theater Academy August Everding. In July 2019, she directed her first piece LOsT – Eine Spiegelung in fünf Bildern, which was shown at Studiobühne. During her free time, she works as a music critic for the online music magazine www.lifeonstage.de and reviews albums and concerts. After assisting Cornelie Müller, Gert Neuner, Robert Spitz and Waltraud Lehner, she most recently accompanied Emre Akal’s production Nur ihr wisst, ob wir es geschafft haben werden, which premiered in November 2019 at HochX Theater in Munich. She is an active member of AYŞE X Staatstheater (house of conceptualizing).

PARTICIPANTPAULINA PLATZERSTAGE DIRECTORGERMANY

The mezzo-soprano Anna Schors was born in Cologne and raised in Brussels and Berlin. She still lives in Berlin, where she completed her vocal studies at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” and the Universität der Künste Berlin. In 2019 she appeared as a guest soloist at Staatsoper Berlin’s Kopernikus (Claude Vivier), a production of the International Opera Studio. As a singer with an innate love for literature and philosophy, she has developed a strong interest in contemporary music. In spring 2018, she was cast for the world premiere of Wir aus Glas by Yasutaki Inamori at Deutsche Oper Berlin. She also appeared at the Deutsche Oper in the role of die Vorgesetzte in Robert Krampe’s Unsichtbare Fronten. During her studies, she starred in numerous productions of the traditional repertoire such as Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro or Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen. She also performed the role of Marchesa di Melibea in a production of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims at UNI.T theatre in Berlin. She has received further artistic inspiration as an active participant of master classes with the likes of Andreas Scholl, Eric Schneider, Malcolm Martineau, Wolfram Rieger, Gudrun Bär, Claudia Eder, Edith Mathis, Julie Kaufmann and Dame Felicity Lott. As a member of the Barock Vokal Young Artist’s Programme, she performed the role of Ottavia by Claudio Monteverdi (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the 2018 Barocknächte festival in Darmstadt. In 2016, she sang Dorabella in a concert production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the North Bohemian Symphony Orchestra and the European Music Academy in Prague. She performed in concerts in and around Berlin (Bach’s Oratorios, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder). In 2019, she sang in a recital at the Richard-Strauss-Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Also, together with the pianist Paul Heller and musicologist Maria Behrendt, she performed in lecture recitals throughout Germany dedicated to newly discovered Lied repertoire.

www.annaschors.com

PARTICIPANTANNA SCHORSMEZZO-SOPRANOGERMANY

22 23

The young Norwegian mezzo-soprano Eira Sjaastad Huse divides her time equally between opera and lieder. She was a member of Opéra de Lyon’s Opera Studio which highlights in the 2019-2020 season included a tour to Royal Opera House Muscat and her mainstage debut at the Opéra de Lyon as La Chatte/L’Écureuil/Un pâtre in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges – the production was also televised by France TV 5 in April 2020. She is currently a recipient of Arts Counsil Norway’s 2-year Work Grant for Young Artists and will take part in the 2021 Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique in James Baillieu’s class. Recent highlights include a debut at the Norwegian National Opera as Second Woman/Second Witch in an opera/ballet production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas by director Andreas Heise, Lady Capulet in Boris Blacher’s Romeo and Juliet directed by Jean Lacornerie (with the Opéra national de Lyon’s Opera Studio) and Grieg’s lied cycle Haugtussa at Oxford Lieder Festival and Oslo Grieg Festival. She also both sang the role of Bastian and directed Bastian und Bastienne at Håvard Gimse’s Mozartfestivalen 2019 (Norway). She had her German debut in 2019 at Kammeroper Schloss-Rheinsberg in Schoenberg’s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten arranged for sinfonietta and staged by Georg Quander. She has performed with artists and ensembles such as Henning Kraggerud, Titus Engel, Clemens Flick, Michael Endres, Oliver-John Ruthven, Musica Poetica, Ensemble Ascolta, Pocket Sinfonia, Emmanuel Calef, Per Kristian Skalstad, Helge Kjekshus, Per Arne Glorvigen, Matti Hirvonen, Nicholas Kok and Bjarte Engeseth. She has sung in venues such as Oslo Concert Hall, Holywell Music Room, Universitetets Aula (Norway), Nationaltheatret (Norway), The Castle Church at Akershus Fortress (Norway), Wigmore Hall (Wigmore Song Competiton) and Gamle Logen (Norway). Festival appearances include Risør Kammermusikkfest (Norway), Mozartfestivalen (Norway), a Piteå Festspelen tour (Sweden), Olavsfestdagene (Norway) and Johan Halvorsen Musikkfest (Norway). She is regurlarly seen in recital with two of Norway’s most promising young pianists Olga Jørgensen and Emil Duncumb and with the British/Norway based ensemble Pocket Sinfonia. She also composes, and in 2014, she wrote the chamber opera Scenes from a Beehive on the subject of bees. In response of covid-19, she recently composed and performed the music for French choreographer Anaïs Touret’s quarantine ballet with dancers from the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet.In 2021, she will portray Dido (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas) at Ramme Gård (Norway), as well as a singing in and writing the music for a ballet by French choreographer Anaïs Touret with the Norwegian National Ballet in RAW 2021.

www.eirahuse.no

PARTICIPANTEIRA SJAASTAD HUSEMEZZO-SOPRANONORWAY

After studying violin, piano, organ and baroque violin (mainly at the Conservatoire of Aix-en-Provence), he continues to study baroque violin in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. Immersed very early in a broad musical universe, from the age of 10, he taught himself to play various instruments such as mandolins, medieval gittern, swedish nyckelharpa, norwegian hardingfele and viola d’amore to name but a few. Multi-instrumentalist and open to all sorts of musical influences, he embraces in addition to his areas of predilection that are baroque and traditional music, a wide range of different disciplines including classical, jazz, song and even rock. He also has taken a close interest in music for theatre, ballet and cinema, and composed several original pieces of music in some of these paths. Member from 2012 to 2014 of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra as a violinist (where he played under Alain Altinoglu, François-Xavier Roth and Gianandrea Noseda), he also participated at the Medinea intercultural sessions in 2015, 2019 and 2020. He has also been for a long time a member of the Violons du Rigodon, a band of 20 violinists playing the traditional repertoire of the old violoneux (fiddlers) of the South French Alps. His curiosity and boundless interest in the multiple facets of music have brought him to collaborate with many artists of different horizons, such as traditional musicians Patrick Vaillant, Françoise Atlan, Moneim Adwan, Gabriel Lenoir, Daniel Muringer, Manu Théron, Deluxe rock band, comedians and directors Didier Rousselet and Côme de Bellescize.

PARTICIPANTCOLIN HELLERNICKELHARPAFRANCE

24

CRÉDITS PHOTOSEvan Lawson © Karin LockeCarmen C. Kruse © C. VladarMimi Doulton © Alexa WildingLaure Poissonnier © Capucine de ChocqueuseEira Sjaastad Huse © Magnus TrevisanColin Heller © François Heller

Création graphique – Irma BoomExécution graphique – Laurie Wagner

THE ACADÉMIE DU FESTIVAL IS SUPPORTED BY:SINCE ITS CREATION IN 1998, THE ACADÉMIE HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS A CENTRE FOR VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL EXCELLENCE, A PLACE TO REFLECT ON OPERA CREATION TODAY AND TO EXPERIMENT WITH NEW INNOVATIVE FORMATS, WHILE ALSO SERVING AS A SPACE THAT PROMOTES AND AIDS THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG ARTISTS.

AMMODO

Ammodo initiates, develops and supports projects in the visual arts, performing arts and sciences. Artists and scientists often see things before other people do. They identify social trends, extend boundaries and make revolutionary discoveries. By providing artists and scientists with the space and time to really immerse themselves in their work, and by helping to showcase that work, Ammodo seeks to stimulate the development of the arts and sciences. Ammodo supports the realisation of the new opera Innocence and the Opera de-ci de-là residency.

THE ACADEMIE IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE NETWORK SUPPORTED BY

TOTAL FOUNDATION

Total Foundation actively leads and participates in actions of solidarity throughout the world on a daily basis through its sites, its subsidiaries and its corporate foundation which stems from Total Group. With its solidarity program, Total is committed to contributing to the development of the zones where it is present. While focusing on youth, Total’s actions can be seen in four different areas including road safety, forest and climate action, education and the professional integration of young people, and dialogue around the subject of culture and heritage.Within the context of this fourth objective, Total Foundation supports artistic projects that promote social inclusion, empower youth, and bring vitality to the regions where Total Group is present. The Opéra de-ci de-là residency proposed by the Académie du Festival d’Aix is a project that brings together all these objectives. Total Foundation provided support and accompanied the Académie during this first session whose aim was to help young artists create participatory forms of opera. Sharing these newly elaborated and condensed forms of opera which were created during the residency with audiences in Aix-en-Provence free of charge adds a dynamic element to the daily life of the city. The operas were performed in public spaces and showcase heritaged that can sometimes be overlooked, the everyday life of the residents of Aix.